Service Design in Movie Theaters Using Auction Mechanism with Seat Reservations

This study addresses problems of service design in movie theaters and proposes a new auction mechanism that addresses seat reservations. In movie theater services, the movie price is generally fixed; moreover, it does not depend on the quality of contents or the theater seat. Therefore, such a service mechanism by the fixed pricing cannot reflect the value of movie contents. In this study, introducing the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism and Gale-Shapley (GS) mechanism, a new mechanism of theater services is proposed. In addition, how the mechanism works is examined using experiments with human subjects and agent-based simulation.